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Summary Media Activism Final Exam Study Guide (All Weeks) 73 Pages
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Media activism reading notes, class summaries, and seminar notes Weeks 1-12 73 Pages!
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Week 1Introduction: Towards an Approach to Media Activism (Emiel Martens)
Atkinson 2019: Alternative Media meets Mainstream Politics
Alternative media refers to news that is produced by activists.
● Critical of dominant power structures
● Produced in ways that are different from mainstream media
First example: Z Magazine (1987), intended to “continue the spirit of resistance depicted in the
movie Z.
Two forms of alternative media: Entertainment vs. Participation?
● Alternative Media provides news, commentary and political analysis. Guide audience to
particular conclusions about specific political issues.
As Atkinson (2017, p.45,in Atkinson 2019, p. 4;slide 30 of the first lecture) states, alternative
media are produced in ways that are different from mainstream media or different from
mainstream media as the content is either critical of dominant power structures.’
Bailey, Cammaerts and Carpentier 2007: Four Approaches to Alternative Media
Alternative media as an (oppositional) alternative to mainstream media
In May 1968, Libération appeared as the new ‘alternative’ newspaper of the Left in France.
● First issue: “glued together around a common refusal of an authoritarian conception of
life and around a common aspiration: for a democracy rejecting the exploitation of work,
everyday violence in the name of profits, the violence of men against women, the
repressions of sexuality, racism, a spoilt environment.”
Approaches being...
1. Serving a community
a. Beyond geography (and ethnicity)
b. Access, participation, and the media
c. Defining participation
d. Access and participation of the community in alternative media
2. Alternative media as an alternative to mainstream media
a. Hegemony and representation
b. The contingency of the alternative
c. Being a different kind of media organization
3. Linking alternative media to civil society
a. Alternative media as part of civil society
b. Keeping alternative media embedded in civil society
4. Alternative media as rhizome
a. Defining the rhizome
b. Rhizomatic media
Alternative media research has a long theoretical and empirical tradition that has tried to capture
their identity. Due to the complexity and elusiveness of this identity, this project has proven to be
a very difficult task. For this reason, a multi-theoretical approach is preferred, combining
,essentialist and relationist positions within the general framework of the (political) identity theory
of Laclau and Mouffe. None of the four approaches discussed in this chapter can be considered
as giving a sufficient overview when applied independently, as we postulate that the only way to
capture the diversity that characterizes community media is the simultaneous application of
these approaches.
Sandoval and Fuchs 2010: Towards a critical theory of alternative media
How to define alternative media
● Approach: (At least) As participatory media
○ In “Four Approaches to Alternative Media” (2007), Bailey, Cammearts and
Carpentier show that one approach to alternative media defines them as
alternatives to mainstream media on both an organizational and content level. In
“Towards a Critical Theory of Alternative Media” (2010), Sandoval and Fuchs to
some extent criticize this approach to alternative media. They argue that
alternative media should at least:
○ Participatory media approaches stress that democratic media potentials can be
realized by opening up access to media production.
● Approach: A critique of the participatory media
○ Participatory media would challenge the concentration of symbolic power
○ Empower ordinary people by giving them a voice
○ Assist them in living a self-determined life
● Approach: As critical media
○ Our understanding of alternative media as critical media is based on a dialectical
understanding of the media system, on the assumption of a dialectical
relationship between media actors (producers and recipients) and media
structures (economic product form, media content, media technologies, media
institutions, etc.).
The End of Poverty? (Philippe Diaz, 2009, 106')
● Diaz traces the growth of global poverty back to colonization in the 15th century
○ The period after World War II when most colonies gained political independence,
the film states that the former colonies are nonetheless trapped within an
international system of neocolonialism
● Wealthy nations (especially the United States) seize a disproportionate share of the
world's natural resources, and how this imbalance is having a dire impact on the
environment as well as the economy.
● Introduction to colonial history and post-colonial present
○ Concerning distribution and exhibition, it was not in mainstream cinemas
○ Did the rounds in festivals
The 2000s saw a resurgence of documentaries concerned with global connections and
consequences → Example: “Fahrenheit 911” (2004), “Inconvenient Truth” (2006)
● The End of Poverty? → Post-2000’s trend in documentary filmmaking
● Worldviews and ambitions mentioned in the global social films
, ● Employs distinctive strategies → Address the global problem of poverty (Making it a
global problem)
○ Establish authority and legitimacy on the topic through interviews with experts
and statistics
○ Factual approach, but evokes emotional response through interviews with
victims, and music
○ Voiceover of the film finds itself in the middle (as the source/voice of authority)
○ Martin Sheen speaks to the emotion of people and appeals through celebrity
voiceover
○ Provides narrative framework → Answering why poverty exists historically in a
world of plenty?
■ Takes its time to tell the complex history
■ To tell the colonial history and the colonial present
○ How to bring the film to your town? → Call to action → For people to organize
screenings of their own.
■ Promoting ways to raise awareness and funds for poverty eradication
■ “10 solutions to end poverty”
■ The problem of global poverty
Lecture 1
Competing labels of media activism
● Alternative media
● Activistic media
● Citizen media
● Community media
● Minority media
● Oppositional media
- Tactical media
- Autonomous media
“They all express differing beliefs about the cultural and political function of this area of work.”
This course revolves around “power”. Political power is exercised.
● In a broad sense
● Constant battlefield
Cultural resistance framework (Stephen Duncombe)
1. Cultural resistance creates a “free space”
a. Ideologically: space to create a new language, meanings, and visions of the
future
b. Materially: Place to build community, networks, and organized models
, 2. Cultural resistance is a stepping stone, providing a language, practice and community to
ease the way into political activity.
3. Cultural resistance is political activity: writing or rewriting political discourse and thus
political practice
4. Cultural resistance is a “haven in a heartless world”, an escape from the world of politics
and problems
5. Cultural resistance does not exist. All culture is or will immediately become an
expression of the dominant power.
Cultural resistance framework: Notting Hill carnival
● Celebrating temporary liberation from the established over
○ Becoming
○ Change
○ Renewal
● A multi-cultural event, the dominant culture is “allowing” this, as it is not a threat
The Other Side of the Water: The Journey of a Haitian Rara Band in Brooklyn
(Jeremy Robins and Magali Damas, 2009)
● Alternative media expression
● Challenging relevant stereotypes about Voodoo
Media Power
● Soft power: movies, pop music, television
○ Spread, validates, and reinforces common norms, values and beliefs
● Hard power: Threatens, dissuades
● Soft power: Seduces, persuades
The role of the media in contemporary politics forces us to ask what kind of world do we want to
live in?
Indymedia: What can I do, doctor?
In this clip, Indymedia introduces corporate media as a media-transmitted disease that
brainwashes innocent people.
● By watching, partaking in Indymedia...
○ Becoming more conscious and critical
○ Challenge the status quo
Understanding alternative media
Multi-theoretical approach (Bailey, Cammaerts and Carpentier 2007)
1. Alternative media as a supplement to or critique of mainstream media → Alternative
media
a. “In particular the increasing reach of Internet and availability of digital media has
fostered the growth of alternative media (Tony Dowmunt)
2. Alternative media as media serving the community → Community media
a. A different form of media
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